Opinion: Football is the problem, not Title IX
By Jonathan Zimmerman, Los Angeles Times
In 1975, Nebraska Sen. Roman Hruska warned a congressional hearing that college football was in mortal danger. The threat came from Title IX, the 1972 measure that outlawed sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance.
To comply with the law, Hruska feared, colleges would have to equalize athletic budgets for male and female sports, and the only way to do that would be to raid the football budget.
He need not have worried. College football budgets have skyrocketed; at most Division I schools, 80 percent of all sports funds go to two men’s sports: football and basketball. To comply with Title IX, schools have cut other sports instead.
